


Of Ice Cream and Death

by neelie415



Series: Of Jack and Gabe [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Feelings Realization, Fluff, Gabe loves ice cream, M/M, One Shot, Post-Mission, Pre-Omnic Crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-09 00:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12265515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neelie415/pseuds/neelie415
Summary: After a successful mission in Berlin, Jack realizes something important





	Of Ice Cream and Death

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this is my first Overwatch work and I'm planning on writing a series of one shots for this ship. They'll all be connected and involve Gabe and Jack! Might even stitch them together into one long, slow burn!

Later, when it all went sideways, when they were all up shit creek without a paddle, when the pain came and the realization that nothing would ever be the same again, when a giant hole got ripped right through Jack’s heart and maybe even his soul too, he would remember this day--the day he realized that he was in love with his best friend.

Before the disaster at Geneva, before the conspiracy theories were proven to be more than just theories, and before the Omnic Crisis, there was just the SEP. Jack joined the Soldier Enhancement Program because he believed in their mission to keep the public safe, Gabe joined because he had nowhere else to good.

And he was good at killing.

When Jack arrived at training, fresh out of basic and barely old enough to shave, the powers that be saw fit to partner him with Gabriel Reyes. At first Jack was convinced that the other man hated him. They were always at odds, bickering back and forth, taking it out on each other in the sparring ring, Gabe always prowling around with his walls up, refusing to share but quick to poke fun at Jack. But the first time the injections had really made Jack sick, so sick that he barely made it back to their shared dorm room and spent the entire night hugging the rim of the toilet, he saw an entirely different side of the man that the SEP used for all of their dirty missions.

Gabriel picked him up off of the floor, cleaned the sweat and vomit from his face, and sang to him until he fell into a fitful sleep. 

Fast forward to a year later, to where they are now, at a cafe in Berlin, enjoying the rare sunshine in March. Jack had used his fledgling German to order them two of his newest obsession--Eiskaffee.

“You’ll love it,” he assures Gabe, stretching out his long legs and leaning back, arms crossed behind his head.

“The Germans have yet to produce anything that I like,” Gabe grumbles. 

“Just wait.” 

The juxtaposition of a sunny day after a mission has always thrown Jack slightly off kilter. Not even two hours ago, they were in full tactical gear, entrenched in a firefight and streaked with the slim of   
the underworld. Now, they were both freshly showered and lounging at a nice cafe, like a pair of normal civilians, just two friends enjoying each other’s company. 

When the waiter brings their order, Jack can’t help the grin that grows in strength at the look on Gabe’s face. SEP’s operative with the most credited kills has self-confessed to liking three things in life: coffee (a God given gift that mere mortals do not deserve), ice cream (proof that at some point, God loved humanity enough to bestow a gift in addition to coffee), and Jack. The last item on the list was a grudging addition that made Jack glow on the inside and walk a little taller because Gabriel Reyes admitted that they were friends and actually liked him.

Even if Jack wanted to be more than friends. 

Jack thinks that Eiskaffee might just be the greatest product of German engineering, simply by the reaction he get out of Gabe when the waiter deposits their drinks in front of them. Gabe does nothing so dramatic as gasping out loud, but he does lean forward in his seat more and the corner of his mouth hitches up a bit. 

He and Gabe kill people for a living. Jack doesn’t like the killing part, but he recognizes that, in some cases it’s necessary. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and all that. More often than not, it was Gabe pulling the trigger, snuffing out lives like a candle and sparing Jack that particular brand of scarring. He operates best in the shadows, doing the hard things so that civilians never caught a glimpse of the ugly shit in the world. He did all of these things, and Jack with him, and received no recognition, no medals, no glory. Just the assurance that they would be sent out on another mission, and another one after that. 

Sometimes those missions would end with a little treat, something materialistic like good food or better coffee to bring a little bit of life back to them. Sometimes there was the hint of a smile.

Jack thinks trying to coax a full smile out of Gabe is a valiant mission. 

“Dios mío,” Gabe mutters, eyes on the Eiskaffee. “Is that what I think it is?”

“I told you,” Jack responds smugly, enjoying the look on Gabe’s face immensely. “Two of your favorite things combined into one. Eiskaffee is pretty much a coffee float!”

The corner of the other man’s mouth hitches up that much higher. “Shit, Jackie this is great.” 

Gabe digs his spoon into the scoop of vanilla ice cream floating in the coffee, splashing some out onto the table. Jack does the same, more neatly, and the two have their treat in a relative silence. 

Later, after they’re finished and the sun has almost reached the end of its slow march across the sky, Jack studies the way the lighting plays out across Gabe’s face, highlighting the different shades of brown in his eyes. In that moment, he’s beautiful. Jack is struck to the core with a truth that he would hold fast to in the difficult days to come. It is also a truth that will nearly destroy him when the illusion of his life shatters like the glass in Geneva. 

Looking at Gabe, stretched out and relaxing in the waning sunlight like a house cat when just a few hours ago he had emerged from a filthy warehouse like the angel of death, streaked with blood and reeking of gunpowder, Jack Morrison realizes something. 

Gabriel Reyes is beautiful and Jack is sorely in trouble, maybe even in love.  
.  
.  
.  
Definitely in love.

But more on that later.


End file.
